MIDI Designer Upgrades to MDP 2.0

As a musician, there are times when you NEED custom…well…things. You hear all the time about how artists design and collaborate with manufacturers to create a tool specific to their needs. Depending on the tool, most of those needs are marketable to the masses. Then there are the DIYers, the folks who require tools with a unique set of features that make sense only to themselves. sometimes, those tools can catch on with others like-minded artists, and a new product is born.

So what about the rest of us?

Artists such as myself have plenty of great ideas, but lack the skill sets in which to realize them. Mind you, I could come up with something, as long as I had the right tools and templates.

This is where something like MIDI Designer Pro comes in. MDP is an app that allows the user to create custom and unique MIDI control surfaces. There are enough tools here to create any type of GUI possible.

Over a year ago, I had used MDP to design a GUI for programming my Yamaha DX27 synthesizer. It definitely made patch building on the DX a lot easier(DX series keyboards were notoriously difficult to program for two reasons: One, FM synthesis was a difficult concept for most musicians to grasp. Two, When you’re only controls for programming are buttons and a slider, patch building becomes tedious work). I was able to lay out a panel for each operator and dedicate controls for most of the functions.

Dan Rosenstark, the head of the company that developed MDP has been hinting that a serious update was in the works. It is now available in the form of MIDI Designer Pro 2.0.

There was quite a bit of work done to make life easier when programming a control surface, not to mention, a host of new features to build and share the fruits of your labor with others.

Here are the specs as per the App Store.

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Description

MDP2 (MIDI Designer Pro 2) is the next generation of MIDI Designer Pro, which took the music-making world by storm when it lauched in 2012. This is the full, professional version for iPad and iPhone/iPod touch.

Dream, create and play your perfect MIDI controller with MIDI Designer Pro 2:
● Reviewed and loved by DJ Tech Tools, Recording Magazine, Sound on Sound and Keyboard Magazine
● Winner of Sonic Touch Gold Award for Best App
● Trusted on stage by veteran touring acts like Todd Rundgren and newer projects like POSTYR and Groove Boston
● A studio cornerstone for music producers like Shadow Child and Oliver for tweaking tons of vintage gear
● Used by musicians, VJs and DJs all around the world
● The platform of choice for community- and professionally-sourced layouts for top-flight gear (e.g., Korg, Roland, Moog, Eventide, Yamaha)

MDP2 is easy to use, infinitely flexible and customizable, and battle-tested in performance. It’s the most-respected MIDI controller for iOS

* * * * * dream | create | play * * * * *

WHAT’S NEW IN MDP2?
● Completely-redesigned look: Glow. More beautiful, practical and functional with a new Home screen
● IAP with new control types: Image Panels, Pickers and Meters (free DAW plugin from musicIO)
● Preset Packs: share global presets with users of the same layout
● Browse and upload within MDP2 to interact seamlessly with the Community
● Hundreds of smaller new features, bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements for greater flexibility, stability and speed

This is MDP2, the next generation of MIDI Designer Pro. You, our users, inspire us to keep pushing forward. What’s new in 2.0?
● Completely Redesigned Look: Glow. More beautiful, practical and functional
● IAP with new control types: Image Panels, Pickers and Meters (free DAW plugin from musicIO)
● Preset Packs: share global presets with users of the same layout
● New Message Type: Combined Bank and Program Change
● Variable Tick Markers (up to max 25 ticks for knobs, 18 for sliders) to make more sense of your values faster
● Interact seamlessly with the Community: download and upload layouts, pages and preset packs directly from MDP2
● New features for our power users: Accelerometer Zero, Medium Throw and Steppers Without Wrapping
● Improved MIDI send, receive, and logging to be even faster and more stable
● A new Home screen put the principle app functionality right where you need it
● Hundreds of bug fixes and optimizations for an even more bullet-proof and consistent experience

Huge thanks to everybody who gave us feedback during the long journey towards MDP2.

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2.0.0 is our 34th update to the go-to professional MIDI controller for iOS. We’ve been the App Store for over three years and have hundreds of thousands of downloads. Our users are smart, passionate and articulate. Thank YOU for your invaluable feedback, testing and dialog: with your help we keep pushing MIDI Designer forward.

Do you love MIDI Designer? Please take the time to leave a great review in the App Store. Reviews are the main way that potential users know how you feel.

Now, I haven’t had a chance to explore much of the new features, but I will be taking a look at some of the community’s work on the tools I currently use. I have the entire Volca Series from Korg. Since MDP2 is powered by a community of users, I thought I’d check out and see what others have built for these amazing little machines. Stay tuned for an update on that.

That’s the other great thing about MDP, it’s user community. At http://mididesigner.com you can find everything from user-designed interfaces to help with creating your own interface. I relied heavily on the forum to aid in the design of my DX GUI, answering any questions I had about programming the controls. It’s definitely community powered.

I would also like to give a big shout out to Dan Rosenstark, who took time to help me out when my app was crashing on me. Thanks Dan, for all your work and for turning out such a great product.

If you are in need of specific Functions for MIDI, this is the tool for you. You can purchase the app here: